The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018)
Jonjo O'Neill: Englishman (segment "The Mortal Remains")
Photos
Quotes
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Englishman (segment "The Mortal Remains") : You know the story, but people can't get enough of them, like little children. Because, well, they connect the stories to themselves, I suppose, and we all love hearing about ourselves, so long as the people in the stories are us, but not us. Not us in the end, especially.
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Trapper (segment "The Mortal Remains") : You're bounty hunters.
Englishman (segment "The Mortal Remains") : Literal man! Cruel man!... yes, fine: bounty hunters. An ugly title, really... as if emolument were the point. Is the cobbler not paid for his shoes? It's an honest calling!
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Trapper (segment "The Mortal Remains") : So... him on the roof, he was wanted?
Englishman (segment "The Mortal Remains") : Oh, Mr. Thorpe was very much wanted... judging by what the are paying for him!
[the Englishman and the Irishman chuckle]
Trapper (segment "The Mortal Remains") : What did he do?
Englishman (segment "The Mortal Remains") : I don't know. Does it matter?
[addressing the Lady]
Englishman (segment "The Mortal Remains") : Just as you said, Madame, there are two kinds of people. In our business they are: dead or alive.
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Englishman (segment "The Mortal Remains") : They're so easily taken when they are distracted, people are. So I'm the distractor, with a little story, a little conversation, a song, a sparkle... and Clarence does the thumping while their attention is on me.
Irishman (segment "The Mortal Remains") : He is very good, this one. You should see him.
Englishman (segment "The Mortal Remains") : No, *he* is good!
Irishman (segment "The Mortal Remains") : [shrugs] I *can* thump.
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Englishman (segment "The Mortal Remains") : I must say... it's always interesting watching them after Clarence has worked his art. Watching them negotiate... the passage.
Frenchman (segment "The Mortal Remains") : Passage?
Englishman (segment "The Mortal Remains") : From here to there. To the other side. Watching them try to make sense of it, as they pass to that other place. I do like looking into their eyes as they try to make sense of it.
[stares at the Frenchman]
Englishman (segment "The Mortal Remains") : I do.
[stares at the Lady]
Englishman (segment "The Mortal Remains") : I do.
Trapper (segment "The Mortal Remains") : Try to make sense of what?
Englishman (segment "The Mortal Remains") : [stares at the Trapper] All of it.
Lady (segment "The Mortal Remains") : And do they ever... succeed?
Englishman (segment "The Mortal Remains") : [smiles] How would I know? I'm only watching!